1) a player performs some sort of input into a game
2) the game responds with some sort of audiovisual phenomena in regards to that input
3) 1 and 2 are repeated, creating a relationship between the player and the game
You can reduce that to "control and achievment". Games give you a little world you can control and achieve something. Even if this something is some value in a meaningless counter (like cookie clicker, I was hooked on that for a while).
I think you've hit on something with this, for AC. Right now, the world is seemingly more out of control and random than normal, for many people. Nothing they can do, literally nothing they could possibly do (outside suicide) can change the trajectory of their own lives due to something outside of their control.
But in games like AC, you control everything. So it's sort of like a child of abuse developing OCD or some other neurological disorder. It's a coping mechanism. Maybe there's something to that?
